Almost every week, members of Tembusu College are invited to meet and chat with guests - both local and international - through a variety of hosted events. There is a huge diversity of backgrounds amongst our visitors, who range from politicians to diplomats, artists, writers, poets, and academics. View our Calendar of Events, or select an event category on the left to find out more.

Our Events and Members of our community are also frequently featured by the Press and Media. Visit the Newsroom to read the reports.

Tembusu College’s motto The Home of Possibilities, means we value the development of each individual according to her or his own path through life. At the same time we are a learning community, which seeks to give students an intense experience in a nurturing environment. The college administers (and awards certificates for) the prestigious University Town College Programme (UTCP), which augments students’ regular degree programmes by emphasising breadth, critical thinking, and exposure to inter-disciplinary thinking. Our curriculum includes both seminars and out-of-classroom learning experiences.

The college is not themed. Diversity is an important part of our ethos, and we offer learning opportunities across a broad spectrum of interests. We do, however, have particular areas of strength, which are reflected in the backgrounds of our faculty.

A home away from home, the Tembusu College community is 21 storeys of collegiate spirit known for its friendly, open, and welcoming culture.

Wake up or wind down through casual conversations with your Fellows and peers over meals at the Dining Hall. Sweat it out over sports at the Multi Purpose Hall. Huddle with like-minded individuals at one of the many Student-run Interest Groups or start your own. Let loose or let your creativity flow in the well furnished Student Spaces. Be our Student Partners and contribute to the College community.

Need career advice? Stressed? Need help on personal issues? Or simply want catch up with friendly members of our Residential Team? We're here for you.

Tembusu College is much more than a home; it's a Home of Possibilities.

Jeremy Fernando at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin

September 22, 2016

On September 11, 2016, at the invitation of Professor Dr Hubertus von Amelunxen — President of the European Graduate School, and member of the Visual Arts section of the Akademie der Künste since 2003 — Jeremy Fernando performed a reading alongside the Irish fiction writer and satirist, Julian Gough, at the Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg.

The triptych of readings were part of the inaugural launch of the Berlin Hub of the European Graduate School, and the event was graced by Dr Christian Schneegass, director of the Junge Akademie of the Akademie der Künste; Ms Susan H. Gillespie, founding director of Institute for International Liberal Education, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson; Professor Dr Kerry Bystrom, associate dean, Bard College Berlin; Ms Ana Z Schenk, architect and sustainable ecologies researcher from the Technische Universität Braunschweig; Dr Daniel S. Margulies, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences; media, performance, and sound, artist, Dr Baruch Gottlieb, from the Universität der Künste Berlin; writers, performers, and musicians, from the artist communities in Berlin; alongside students, graduates, and friends, of the EGS.

In lieu of an formal address, Professor von Amelunxen addressed the question of learning, thinking, bildung, by addressing the possibilities of the EGS Hub in Berlin as a thinking community — a space which is generated by the coming together of people to bring forth questions, ideas, possibilities.

This was followed by Julian Gough’s whimsical tale of Sam Peckinpah’s accidental, inadvertent, involvement in The Sound of Music — an exploration of ‘forgotten’ Hollywood history, as it were — through a short story called ‘I’m the guy who wrote The Wild Bunch’. And even as there was constant laughter in the audience, there was no doubt that Gough was — through satire — conducting a incisive exploration into the myth-making power of Hollywood, of popular culture, alongside the underlying structures that shape its construction.

Jeremy’s piece, entitled ‘je m’appelle Delilah’ — a retelling which attempts to respond to her voice, a voice around which the biblical tale revolves and yet is missing, is silenced — was performed with the fiction writer, poet, and media philosopher, D. Katherine Griggs. The performance was an attempt to meditate on — explore — the space, place, of Delilah: not through analysis, or even through a reading of the book of Judges, but with an attempt to listen to a voice that is not there, or perhaps has been erased. Thus, perhaps then a reading: as an opening — and here, more specifically — by opening the possibility that the relationship between Delilah and Samson is a space of love.

The Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) is a large evergreen tree in the family Gentianaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia. Its trunk is dark brown, with deeply fissured bark, looking somewhat like a bittergourd. It grows in an irregular shape from 10 to 25m high. Its leaves are light green and oval in shape. Its yellowish flowers have a distinct fragrance and the fruits of the tree are bitter tasting red berries, which are eaten by birds and fruit bats.
Source: Tembusu, Wikipedia